Modi swerves to modernity: New avatar poses a bigger threat to Congress

There are still a number of steep climbs and sharp curves that Narendra Modi has to negotiate before he comes within sniffing distance of his destination. That includes, above all, ongoing court cases and unfinished investigations related to the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. Apart from B S Yeddyurappa, his potential allies — whose numbers might be decisive to form the next government — have kept their counsel to themselves. The challenge he faces — how to retain BJP’s core Hindutva constituency and, at the same time, win over those non- or anti-Congress forces that are beyond its ambit — remains a formidable one.

What is significant though is that bit by calibrated bit Modi has begun to address the challenge in right earnest. Take, for instance, his remark, made at a gathering of students in Delhi, that the country needs more toilets than temples. To buttress his plea he cited the example not of a Hindutva icon but that of Mahatma Gandhi. He knew that he would get the goat of Hindutva hardliners with this remark. They had reviled Jairam Ramesh who had made a similar remark earlier. This time was no different. Praveen Togadia of VHP branded Modi a renegade.

Consider also his pointed refusal so far to make any reference to the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. That will be a litmus test of the genuineness of his shift away from contentious issues. His record isn’t quite promising on this score.

One day he taunts Congress for asking the Archaeological Survey of India to excavate a site near an ancient temple in Uttar Pradesh in search of a vast amount of gold — an initiative allegedly taken on the basis of a holy man’s dream. That made some people wonder if Modi was displaying sly traits of Nehruvian modernity while Congress, which had justified the digging, appeared to be reneging on its commitment to promote a ‘scientific temper’ in the country. The sense of wonder vanished into thin air when he delivered barely three days later what in effect was tantamount to a cringing apology to the holy man.

Modi has also sought to reach out to Muslims, though yet again in awkward fits and starts. Distribution of skullcaps and burqas to Muslim men and women who attend his rallies is a coarse attempt to win them over. But his opponents would be deluding themselves if they do not take two factors into account. One, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, despite his stubborn unwillingness to come clean on the 2002 riots, hasn’t as of now made a single statement that can be construed as an expression of his RSS-inspired hatred of Muslims. And two, influential sections of the Muslim community have begun giving him the benefit of doubt.

What two influential Muslim clerics have said on the subject should indeed ring alarm bells in parties that swear by secularism. The head of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, Syed Mehmood Madani, warned them that raising fears about Modi in the Muslim community to garner its votes won’t work any longer. Not long afterwards, a Shia leader, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, vice-president of the All India Personal Law Board, went on record to assert that he would vote for Modi if BJP’s prime ministerial candidate “changes himself”.

That is, admittedly, a tall order. But there is no denying that Modi seems to be at least trying to project another, more congenial, ‘modernist’ persona. One pointer is his frequent allusion to the debilitating effects of exploiting caste, communal and urban-rural fault lines for electoral gain — as is routinely done, in his eyes, by ‘secular’ parties. This kind of narrative goes down well with those who believe that young India has other fish to fry: clean and accountable governance, economic growth that creates jobs and keeps inflation in check, social reforms that benefit only the truly needy, and pride in an inclusive nationalism and a pluralist culture.

More revealing is what he has to say about the Constitution. He acknowledges its supremacy in our national life with a fervour that is, well, unmistakably religious. It hardly matters whether this freshly-minted loyalty to the Constitution is for real or not. But one can’t miss its significance. In moments of crisis, such as the destruction of the Babri masjid, the Sangh Parivar had placed ‘faith’ and its brand of ‘cultural nationalism’ above the law and Constitution. Modi has now begun to sing a different, dulcet tune though it is anybody’s guess how long he will be able to do so. The reason? Such music jars on the ears of his ideological mentors in Nagpur.

But to dismiss the evidence of Modi’s shift of tack out of hand, as Congress does with tiresome predictability, is to gloss over an important point: that a ‘modernist’ prime ministerial candidate of BJP is going to be a far more dangerous adversary than one who is Hindutva-driven and India Inc-backed. This failure could well provoke a national catharsis whose consequences for our democracy and our republic boggle the imagination.